it has to be said BBS Ritchie has hardly been short of money either at the start of BN or now. hence there's some truth to what he says.

True, a guy who have sold way over 100 million albums with Purple and Rainbow alone can't be poor exactly..

Imagine the money just from radio play.

No way he have ever been short of cash any time since 1970 or so.

Well, obviously he isn't starving, but having sold millions of albums is no guarantee that you're "rich". Many seemingly successful artists don't see much money because they are screwed by the manager or record company. And sometimes the money they do get disappears due to poor investments, large expenses etc.

True, but just 1 (one) dollar from each album and you have a substantial sum of money.

Re:You don't get one dollar per album - some twenty-odd years ago, before the internet changed things for the worse, a typical record shop would pay 6-10 Euros/dollars for a CD, which was then sold for 14-25. If the record company got 6-10 minus what the distributor would demand, then the band themselves MAY have gotten 2-3 dollars at most. Then you have to cover costs incurred in by the band themselves, take what is left and split it in six parts (the five band members and the manager). That leaves you with perhaps 30-40 cents per record, if at all - then on that you pay taxes. Not saying that they have not made their money, but it can be a lot less than people would imagine, with so many intermediaries asking for their share of the pie.

Re: ritchie statement in new bn cdThe Beatles only made one cent per album sold, which they then had to split 4 ways. They finally made a little more on their last few albums, but even then it was something like 5 cents for every album sold if I remember correctly.

Re: ritchie statement in new bn cdVery little is made in the sale of records unless you score some major deals like Michael Jackson, his sister and Mariah Carey did and even for them it was 50 cents per record which is pretty unheard of, otherwise its pennies on the dollar.

The big money these days is in touring and concert merch. It used to be in publishing which got you more than album sales, but it doesn't help much when people are stealing it off the internet.

it has to be said BBS Ritchie has hardly been short of money either at the start of BN or now. hence there's some truth to what he says.

True, a guy who have sold way over 100 million albums with Purple and Rainbow alone can't be poor exactly..

Imagine the money just from radio play.

No way he have ever been short of cash any time since 1970 or so.

Interviews I have read/listened to have him not very short of cash in the 60`s either, maybe for a short time while he got bands together etc., but I think his session work paid well for the time? and JL said once that RB had a very "nice" or "comfortable" life in Germany before he joined DP? I don`t believe the "In it for money" meme at all, I think RB had all the money he needs years ago, he doesn`t live some excessive L.A celebrity muppet life does he?

You don't get one dollar per album - some twenty-odd years ago, before the internet changed things for the worse, a typical record shop would pay 6-10 Euros/dollars for a CD, which was then sold for 14-25. If the record company got 6-10 minus what the distributor would demand, then the band themselves MAY have gotten 2-3 dollars at most. Then you have to cover costs incurred in by the band themselves, take what is left and split it in six parts (the five band members and the manager). That leaves you with perhaps 30-40 cents per record, if at all - then on that you pay taxes. Not saying that they have not made their money, but it can be a lot less than people would imagine, with so many intermediaries asking for their share of the pie.

Maybe the artist even have to pay some for getting the album out...? ha ha ha

The Beatles only made one cent per album sold, which they then had to split 4 ways. They finally made a little more on their last few albums, but even then it was something like 5 cents for every album sold if I remember correctly.

Re: Re:I'm pretty sure some do, at least at the very beginning of their career (and most bands don't publish more than 1-3 CDs anyway). We laugh, they don't.

It's funny how the streaming/mp3 revolution was initially backed by many because we wanted to see the majors slimming down and ripping consumers less off, but whereas that has certainly happened, the biggest negative impact has been felt by the musicians themselves. Now everyone can record an album on electronic format, but hadrly anyone can live from it - and you will notice how many relevant names now juggle multiple projects just to make a living.

There's a nice book, titled something like How the record industry self-destructed, that came out some 5 years ago and explains it in detail.

quote:

Concrete god wrote:

Maybe the artist even have to pay some for getting the album out...? ha ha ha

I'm pretty sure some do, at least at the very beginning of their career (and most bands don't publish more than 1-3 CDs anyway). We laugh, they don't.

It's funny how the streaming/mp3 revolution was initially backed by many because we wanted to see the majors slimming down and ripping consumers less off, but whereas that has certainly happened, the biggest negative impact has been felt by the musicians themselves. Now everyone can record an album on electronic format, but hadrly anyone can live from it - and you will notice how many relevant names now juggle multiple projects just to make a living.

There's a nice book, titled something like How the record industry self-destructed, that came out some 5 years ago and explains it in detail.

quote:

Concrete god wrote:

Maybe the artist even have to pay some for getting the album out...? ha ha ha

It is a trade off, now bands/individuals who would never have had a sniff of a record deal in the past, for whatever reason, can be heard by many many people world wide without all the effort of touring and securing a deal, surely that is inspiring enough to keep them making music? The majority of musicians never made big money, so nothing has really changed has it? If you can play live and are known the money is from playing gigs now.